COMM 215 – Final Review (Part I)

Date: TBD (See Tutorial Schedule)

Tutorial Lecturer James Peters

Contact [email protected]
Today’s Coverage
All chapters covered up until the midterm exam (Chapters 1-4,
6, and 7).

*Disclaimer: This tutorial is not sufficient practice for the final

exam. Due to time constraints, some concepts and material are
not covered in this tutorial. You are highly encouraged to
attempt these problems beforehand.
QUESTION F.1.1 [MCQ]
A dataset contains 999 observations. The mean,
median, and mode are found to be 3.56, 3.5, and 3,
respectively. Which of the following are true?
i. At least one observation must be 3.56
ii. At least one observation must be 3.5
iii. At least two observations must be 3

a) i only
b) ii only
c) iii only
d) ii and iii
e) i, ii, and iii
QUESTION F.1.2 [MCQ]
The random variable 𝝉 lies in the interval [𝟎, 𝟏𝟎𝟎]. Which
of the following must be true of 𝝉?
a) It must be a continuous random variable
b) It must be a discrete random variable
c) It may be a continuous or discrete random variable
d) It is neither a continuous nor discrete random variable
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.3 [MCQ]
Consider two events, 𝑪 and 𝑫. Which of the following
are always true? Assume all probabilities to be non-
zero.
𝑷(𝑪 ⋂ 𝑫) 𝑷(𝑪 ⋂ 𝑫)
i. =
𝑷(𝑫) 𝑷(𝑪)
ii. 𝑷(𝑪)𝑷(𝑫 | 𝑪) = 𝑷(𝑫)𝑷(𝑪 | 𝑫)
iii. 𝑷(𝑪) = 𝑷(𝑪 | 𝑫)

a) ii only
b) i and ii
c) i and iii
d) ii and iii
e) i, ii, and iii
QUESTION F.1.4 [MCQ]
The final grades of 12 COMM 225 students are given
below:

44 53 61 62 70 71 73 79 81 85 90 𝑥!"

Which of the following expressions for 𝒙𝟏𝟐 ensure that

the mean is greater than the median?
a) 𝑥*+ ≥ 90
b) 𝑥*+ ≥ 95
c) 𝑥*+ > 90
d) 𝑥*+ > 95
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.5 [MCQ]
The discrete random variable 𝒙 only exists on the
interval 𝑰 = [−𝟐, 𝟐]. Which of the following must be
true?
a) 𝑃(0 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 2) = 𝑃 (0 < 𝑥 < 2)
b) 𝑃(−1 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 1) = 0.5
c) 𝑃(−2 < 𝑥 < 2) = 1
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.6 [MCQ]
A math quiz consists of three true-or-false questions.
Considering you take the quiz completely unprepared,
what is the probability that you answer the first
question correctly and the other two incorrectly?
a) 0.5
b) 0.333
c) 0.167
d) 0.125
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.7 [MCQ]
When the normal random variable 𝒙 = 𝒂, it yields a
negative z-score, distributed with mean 𝒎. Which of
the following must be true?
i. The standard deviation is negative
ii. 𝑷(𝒙 ≥ 𝒂) > 𝟎. 𝟓
iii. 𝒂 > 𝒎

a) ii only
b) iii only
c) i and ii
d) ii and iii
e) i, ii, and iii
QUESTION F.1.8 [MCQ]
A box-plot with median 14 has an interquartile range of
6 and a maximum of 16. Which of the following
describe the shape of this distribution?
a) It is symmetrical
b) It is negatively skewed
c) It is positively skewed
d) It can be negatively, symmetrically, or positively skewed
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.9 [MCQ]
Which of the following are false regarding the normal
distribution?
a) A z-score of 0.5 corresponds to the 50th percentile
b) The probability of observing a z-score of 1.5 is 0.9332
c) A z-score of -4 is impossible to attain
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.10 [MCQ]
Fill in the blanks: The normal distribution becomes
________ as the mean decreases and ________ as the
standard deviation increases.
a) positively skewed; wider
b) positively shifted; wider
c) negatively skewed; wider
d) negatively shifted; narrower
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.11 [MCQ]
Assuming normality, which of the following correctly
expresses the probability that some random variable,
𝒙, is to within 1.5 standard deviations of the mean?
a) 2𝑃(𝑧 ≤ 1.5)
b) 𝑃(−1.5 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 1.5)
c) 1 − 2𝑃(𝑧 ≤ 1.5)
d) 1 − 𝑃(𝑥 ≤ 1.5)
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.12 [MCQ]
When Héma-Québec holds a blood drive, they record
the donor’s blood type and take note of their phone
number in case of emergency. Which of the following
qualitative variable classes correctly classify blood type
and phone number?
a) Blood type is nominal, phone numbers are ordinal
b) Blood type is ordinal, phone numbers are nominal
c) Both are ordinal
d) Both are nominal
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.13 [MCQ]
Let events 𝑨 and 𝑩 be collectively exhaustive.
Assuming 𝑷(𝑨) = 𝟎. 𝟓 and 𝑷(𝑩) = 𝟎. 𝟔, which of the
following must be true?
a) 𝑃(𝐴 ⋂ 𝐵) = 0.1
b) 𝑃(𝐴 ⋃ 𝐵) = 1.1
c) 𝐴 and 𝐵 are mutually exclusive
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.14 [MCQ]
You have been asked to normally approximate a
binomial distribution with a 15% probability of success.
What is the smallest sample size required to carry-out
this approximation?
a) 5
b) 6
c) 33
d) 34
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.15 [MCQ]
If two events, 𝑿 and 𝒀, are independent, which of the
following must be true?
a) 𝑃(𝑋 ⋂ 𝑌) = 0
b) 𝑃(𝑋 ⋃ 𝑌) = 0
c) 𝑃(𝑋 | 𝑌) = 𝑃(𝑌 | 𝑋)
d) 𝑃(𝑋)𝑃(𝑌) = 𝑃(𝑋) + 𝑃(𝑌) − 𝑃(𝑋 ⋃ 𝑌)
e) None of the above
QUESTION F.1.16 [SA]
Last summer, undergraduate students at a local
university either worked an internship, part-time job,
or both; otherwise, they were deemed unemployed. A
study found that 1.8% of students last summer worked
both an internship and part-time job, while 56.5%
worked a part-time job only. If it is known that 13.2% of
students last summer were unemployed, what
percentage of students worked an internship?
QUESTION F.1.17 [SA]
The random variable 𝒙 is normally distributed with
standard deviation 𝝈 = 𝟎. 𝟖. If 𝑷(𝒙 ≥ 𝟏𝟐) = 𝟎. 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟓,
what is the mean?
QUESTION F.1.18 [SA]
A semi-automated warehouse uses 10 robots and 25
employees to prepare customer orders. When an item
on the order is too bulky for the robots, an employee
must intervene and retrieve the item manually. For any
given order, there is a 40% chance that the robot will
require employee intervention. What is the probability
that 10 out of 15 orders can be fulfilled exclusively by
the robots?
QUESTION F.1.19 [SA]
A library owns two copies of Moby-Dick. One copy,
which contains chapter summaries, is much more
popular with students and tends to be available only
45% of the time, while the regular copy tends to be
available 80% of the time. You have a book report
coming up next week; what is the probability that only
one copy of Moby-Dick will be available when you visit
the library? Assume the availability of one copy to be
independent of the other.
QUESTION F.1.20 [SA]
A Fortune 500 company’s monthly expenses tend to be
normally distributed with a mean of $7.4 million and
standard deviation of $1.9 million. What is the
probability that they spend less than $6 million or more
than $9 million next month?
QUESTION F.1.21 [LA]
An appliance retailer sells and delivers both new and
used fridges. Thirty percent of all fridges are used and
8% of all used fridges are delivered damaged.
Furthermore, given that a fridge was delivered
damaged, there is a 72% chance it was a used fridge.
What is the probability that a fridge is delivered
damaged?
QUESTION F.1.22 [LA]
Conference calls at your workplace feel like they never
end, however, they actually tend to be normally
distributed with a mean of 3.68 hours and a standard
deviation of 33 minutes. You are currently in a call and
have plans after work, which, for you, is supposed to end
at 5:00pm. Given that the call began at 1:00pm, and it is
now 4:15pm, what is the probability that the call extends
your workday?
QUESTION F.1.23 [LA]
A recent survey found that 33.1% of bachelor’s students
are not satisfied with their major. Moreover, 41.6% of
students who are not satisfied with their major did not
apply for a degree transfer. If the dissatisfied students
represent 17.07% of those who did not apply for a
degree transfer, what proportion of surveyed students
are satisfied with their major and still applied for a
degree transfer?